Friday, October 02, 2009

Noted...

Say "good-bye" to the missing link, and to our chimp cousins...

Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found--Disproves "Missing Link"

Scientists today announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor. The find reveals that our forebears underwent a previously unknown stage of evolution more than a million years before Lucy, the iconic early human ancestor specimen that walked the Earth 3.2 million years ago.

The fossil puts to rest the notion, popular since Darwin's time, that a chimpanzee-like missing link—resembling something between humans and today's apes—would eventually be found at the root of the human family tree.

Indeed, the new evidence suggests that the study of chimpanzee anatomy and behavior —- long used to infer the nature of the earliest human ancestors —- is largely irrelevant to understanding our beginnings... [NatGeo]~~

But for those "human trafficking" rules, eBay could resolve a lot of intra-family conflicts...

Girl, ten, tries to sell nan on eBay

Zoe Pemberton, ten, from Clacton, Essex, put her 61-year-old nan Marian Goodall on the eBay auction website hoping to get "just 99p for her". The youngster described Mrs Goodall as "rare and annoying and moaning a lot" ...

She said: "I was sitting down watching TV and she kept asking me to do things like make her a drink. I was on the laptop and suddenly thought I'd put nan on Ebay. I didn't know how much we'd get for her, maybe 99 pence..."

Her dad Thomas, 31, said Zoe put his mother, Marian, up for auction after a minor falling out...

But despite a flurry of online bids for Mrs Goodall eBay bosses were forced to take down her listing over human trafficking regulations.

An eBay spokeswoman said: "Obviously we have rules about the selling of people...[TheSun.uk]~~

When Swedes "go commando"...

Commandos blow up wrong house

A group of elite commandos has apologised after blowing up the wrong house in a training exercise.

The squad - from Sweden's K3 cavalry division - were supposed to attack an unoccupied home bought by the military for attack drills. Instead they launched a terrifying night assault on another home 200 yards away ...

"They were extremely lucky that the couple who own the property were out or they could have been killed," said one neighbour.

The troops blew out both front and back doors and every single window before they realised their mistake.

The K3 unit is considered the most deadly strike force in Sweden and likes to compare itself to the SAS and America's SEALs.

An army spokesman said: "We've already cleaned up after ourselves and we have, of course, contacted the owner. There's no hard feelings."... [Ananova]~~

That's the "commando" attitude! Maybe it was those "unfit for combat service" Swedish military bras that did them in.